(upbeat music)
(people chatting and laughing)
(cutlery and plates clanking)
(upbeat music)
- Hello, everyone, welcome to the channel.
We are SORTEDfood
- Today. I have a selection of
amazing ingredients from around the world
that recently got me pretty excited
when I first learned about them.
So today, let's see what our normals think
and see if we can blow some minds.
(upbeat indie music)
Lift the cloche.
- It looks like a cross between star anise
and shrivelled up garlic.
- Yeah.
I've never seen anything like this before.
- [Jamie] Why are there two different ones?
- One's moist, one's dry.
- Correct.
These particular ones we bought in their dried form
and then we hydrated them,
so that you can have a little bit of a lick
and a nibble of the wet ones.
- Right, let's try this. - Cheers.
(upbeat indie music continues)
- Really sort of gets you in the glands.
It's really recognisable,
but I can't put my finger on what it is.
- They eat like a sun dried tomato, in texture
and they taste vinegary. - Yeah, it's vinegary.
The smell though is more like fig or raisin,
like dried fruit.
- This is Kokum.
It is a member of the mangosteen family.
So on the tree, it tends to be a reddish fruit
and as it ripens, and then as it's dried
it becomes more purple-y and darker in colour.
Where in the world do you think it comes from?
- See, I think mangosteen and think tropical,
but it's not a mango.
- No, it's different from a mango.
- But I do think it's from a tropical environment.
- I'm gonna go Asian.
- Very broadly Asian. - Yes, very broadly Asian
- Fine, I'll go south American then.
(Jamie laughs)
- Jamie, you're definitely more right.
So when we were looking at mangosteens,
we were thinking sort of Malaysia, Indonesia.
These, the Kokum, Southwest India.
- Hm. - Okay.
- When we were trying them, it reminded us of tamarind.
- Okay. - That kind of sour fruit-
- Yes. - That you might add to,
otherwise creamy, coconut based curries.
Let's give you one of those.
- Ooh.
(bright electro music)
- So what we have prepared for you
is a delicious coconut based Goan style curry,
crammed with various seafood, some mussels,
some scallops, some prawns.
But what we did was soak the Kokum
and then blend them up and stir it through
so you get that kind of sourness,
where otherwise, you might use
something like tamarind or lime.
- Well first off the bat, the smells are amazing.
And I ain't ever seen rice like that.
And I cannot wait to eat that.
- This is fragrant with a capital F.
- Yeah.
It's effing fragrant. (Jamie chuckles)
- Cheers, rude git.
- Oh, wow. - Mm.
- That is peppered
and it's creamy and I am here for that all day long.
- So commonly Kokum is added into dahls and curries
and soups and sauces
as that kind of souring agent,
you can literally get sour dahl and things like that.
- I'm getting something like that.
You get a bit of a tang when you add lime to a creamy curry,
but it doesn't taste limey. - Mm-hm.
- I'm getting something like that.
And I'm assuming it's not a citrus fruit juice.
- There is something there that's really hard to identify,
'cause I don't feel like I know the flavour,
but it's adding an incredible roundness
to the whole curry.
- [Ben] So a bag like that
is gonna last you awful a long time.
- Am I gonna be picking this up from the world food aisle
in the supermarket or am I going somewhere specific?
- That's gotta be a proper supermarket, hasn't it?
- Yeah.
So I don't think you'll get those in UK retailers yet.
'Cause I don't think there's enough familiarity
about them and how to use them.
But all of the ingredients we're looking at today,
next day delivery, UK, super simple, all very affordable.
- What's exciting, to me,
is that this is one of the many puzzle pieces it takes
to create a dish like that.
It all comes together
and then it starts to taste like the authentic versions.
- They always need hydrating.
You're never just gonna chew on them.
It's not a fruit as such.
It's worth throwing into the mix that the stones, the pips,
the seeds in the middle, grind those up
and you can kind of get an oil out of them like a butter.
So you have Kokum butter
and that you might have seen in beauty products,
in the same way that coconut butters
appear in those kind of skincare products as well.
Kokum, something you'd like to devour?
Or not your preferred sour?
- I'd like to devour it.
- I'm keen to devour it,
but I need five places where I can use it
and then I'll devour it.
- I am, I'm with you, I'm with you.
(bright indie music)
They are long! - Oh, that was slimy.
It smells pickle-y.
- These particular ones are pickled
and have got a heat to them as well,
a little bit of chilli in there.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Why did I pick such a long one?
(Jamie chuckling)
They just taste exactly like a pickle, basically.
- It's not dil pickle, is it?
- No, no, it's definitely got some heat to it as well.
- It's got bite to it
in the same way that you'd expect from a pickled cucumber.
- Cucumber being predominantly...?
- Water.
- What else holds a lot of water?
- The ocean. (record scratch)
A lake.
A bath!
- That is green and could be sliced.
- Pepper.
- It's cactus.
Cactus paddle. (graphic swooshes)
IE the leafy, fleshy part of a cactus.
- [Mike] Wow. - Okay.
- [Mike] I did not see that coming.
- [Jamie] No.
- [Ben] Where in the world do you think it's from?
- Mexico? (Jamie laughing)
- Yes, Mexico.
- Oh, great. Excellent.
- That would be my guess. - Yeah. Cool.
- Genuinely,
I might be on the verge of having my mind blown.
- Yeah.
I've never heard of eating cactus before.
I can imagine steak,
in a taco,
with a sauce, like a creamy sauce and that on top.
That would work really well together.
- Yeah, in fajitas, like all sorts of stuff.
- Would you like to try something pretty similar?
- [Jamie] Kush-kush-kush-kush!
- If you suck this bone,-
- All right. - I will walk out.
I'm not being a part of that.
- [Ben] Lift the top off your avo.
- [Jamie] And that's what happens if you shake an avocado
(they laugh)
- [Ben] What you have there is rib eye on the bone
that's been air dried in the fridge for a couple of days,
then slow cooked for five or six hours.
- Is that your slice?
(Jamie snorts)
- [Ben] With a salsa, with some avocado,
with some charred peppers, some sour cream.
And of course,
nopalitos.
- [Mike] Cheers.
- Now we've treated you boys to rib eye,
but the cactus itself can become the hero
in many, many dishes across Mexico.
- And is the cactus always pickled?
- No, that was very much how we could get hold of it.
So it's in a jar, it's got a long shelf life.
It becomes very affordable, next day delivery.
In the streets of Mexico
it's actually often just sold
as huge paddles on the street
and it's, it's de-thorned. - Mm-hm.
- Cleaned and then sliced to order,
so you can literally say,
"I want this much or this much", and it's cut off.
And then it can be used in all sorts of things,
from salads and tacos,
to turned into marmalades and chutneys,
and then it can also be pickled and preserved.
- It's great.
I mean, that's not gonna not taste good.
But the cactus gives you the pickle.
It gives you the chilli and it's great.
And also what I like about this is
I can think of a million ways to use that.
- Mm-hm.
- Whereas the previous one,
I was a bit limited within my own repertoire.
- When it's fresh, it's quite vegetal.
So it's almost that cross between
asparagus, green bean, okra, slight citrusiness.
Does this prick up your ears?
Or is it just a paddle of cac-
tus?
- I love it.
- You have pricked up my ears.
- You've got two pricks here.
- Number three.
(upbeat indie rock music)
Number three, lift the cloche.
- Oh dear.
- [Jamie] It looks like a cross between
apple sauce and worms.
- [Mike] I'm getting a stemmed ginger vibe.
- [Jamie] Yeah.
- Again, an ingredient I don't think we've ever
featured on the channel.
- I can't smell anything.
- I'm getting a bit of fruit.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Fruit?
- [Jamie] Oh, oh, oh
- Oh, crunchy.
- Oh, why is it so crunchy?
- It's like radish-y, but not a radish.
- It's like a pear. - It's got a proper crunch
and it crunches up into like bits, but it's also gelatinous.
It's really odd.
- Okay. I can, yeah, I can see where you're going.
Have you, is there anything you've ever had
that's similar to it?
- No.
It doesn't really taste of anything.
- This is shredded jellyfish.
(record scratch) (music stops)
(perky polka music) - I was not expecting that.
(Jamie mimics air bubbling in water)
- And where in the world do in you think this might be from?
- I've seen jellyfish all around the world.
One place in particular is Portugal.
'cause you get the Portuguese Man of War.
- I like that logic.
It's wrong, but I love that logic.
- [Mike] I thought you'd got it then.
- I've been stung by jellyfish in three or four countries.
- Have you? - Yeah
- Have you really? - Tunisia, Turkey, Portugal.
- You'll take any opportunity
to (bleep) on yourself, won't you?
(Jamie laughs)
China?
- You're right.
This is a Chinese product. - Oh!
- So they are popular in places like Vietnam
the Philippines, Malaysia, China,
also eaten in Taiwan, South Korea.
- I've got a question.
It doesn't taste of anything.
What nutritional benefits, if anything,
is it like all fibre or is it protein?
- There's not much to it.
And they admit that there's not a huge amount of flavour.
It's a popular delicacy as a snack or to add into dishes
to provide texture.
Something that is so popular right across Southeast Asia.
And we've talked about this even when we were in Japan,
getting used to some of the gelatinous kind of mochis.
It's a texture thing that we are less familiar with.
But in this instance, it's literally added as a delicacy
for that textural crunch.
Would you like it in situ?
We've created you a little salad.
- [Mike] Wow.
- [Ben] What you have is a poached chicken
cucumber and jellyfish salad, and it's all sort of tossed
in a wonderful chilli oil as well.
- Okay.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
(bright funky music)
- Mm. Mm-hm. - Oh, howdy doodle.
That is fantastic. - Yeah. Oh yeah.
Well it does a noodle-y job.
- Yeah, it does.
It really does offer a crunch.
- Interestingly, it's also used as in flight meals,
in for example, some of the Chinese airlines
use them as salads.
There's even a Japanese company that sells
vanilla and jellyfish ice cream,
because cubes of the jellyfish hold that texture
that you can crunch through in ice cream,
like any of the various ice cream options
that might have honeycomb,
or mallow in it, or something like that.
You can actually have a fairly flavourless jellyfish
to give you that texture.
- We only know jellyfish from standing on them
or getting stung by them.
- "We." (Jamie laughs)
- Texture wise,
that adds everything that you want to a dish.
- I'm glad that I've tried it because it's fascinating.
And it's like no other texture I've ever had.
The cross between a, what feels like a gelatinous outside,
until you crunch through it.
Where or whether I would ever use it in my own home cooking.
I don't, I just don't know.
- And it's worth pointing out
the little pouch that it comes in
does come with a seasoning sachet and some finishing oil.
So you could do exactly that.
Make a broth and heat it up in that with some vegetables,
it's quite often just served with,
you know, carrot and cucumber added.
And again, there are lots,
I was gonna put a number to it,
I'm gonna say lots of different species of jellyfish,
they're not all edible.
- Would I use it in like a cooking challenge
or a battle here? - Mm.
100%.
- Okay, final question for you.
Is this tenta-cool? (Mike snorts)
Or are you not ready for this jelly?
- Yes. Yes.
That's good.
He doesn't get the reference, but it's good.
I like it (Mike laughs)
- What reference?
I mean, I know they have tentacles.
- Fine. (snorts)
- I think they're a tenta-cool idea.
- I think it's a really tenta-cool idea.
And now that I've tasted it,
I would order it in a dish from a restaurant.
- Yes
- But I don't know if I'm ready for this jelly at home.
- Boys. I've got one more for you.
(pulsing electro dub music)
Lift the cloche carefully on number four.
- Yay!
- Two different versions of the same thing.
Have a sniff, have a taste
and see if you can work out
what this highly celebrated drink is.
One came in a bottle, one came in a can.
- [Mike] One's cloudy, one's darker.
- [Jamie] Yeah.
(glasses clink) Cheers.
- Cheers.
(pulsing electro dub music)
- Oh, that is an unusual flavour in a drink.
- It's like sweet.
- But it's recognisable.
- It's like mead-y. - It is mead-y, it's honey-y.
- It's got a little bit of fizz.
- I think mead was a good,
"Mead" was a good shout.
- I think mead is a fairly good shout.
This particular drink is often then infused
with the likes of honey or herbs or other bits and pieces.
- It's got like a bitter tea note.
- Yeah, but that bitterness is kind of malty.
- It's delicious. - Ah.
- It's a bit biscuit-y.
I like it but I don't have any idea what it is.
- I really like it.
- This is Kvass.
So Kvass is a slightly fermented cereal based drink.
- Mm. - So low alcohol,
might have a percent or two.
And then once it's finished,
sometimes, it is infused with fruits or berries,
or honey, sometimes,
which is what you're possibly getting from some of those.
And traditionally, it would be made from
the likes of Rye bread.
- Interesting. - Mm.
- [Ben] So you soak the rye-
- (gasps) That's what it tastes like!
- Yeah. - It tastes like rye.
- It tastes like a Ruben sandwich.
- (laughs) Yeah, exactly.
Get some of those cactus pickles back.
(Jamie laughs)
- Now, you know that,
where in the world do you think it might be from?
- Germany?
- Scandinavia?
- So the name Kvass or sometimes,
and this I might be getting wrong, Jira or Gira,
I'm not sure what the G is.
Popular across so many countries,
including Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Romania,
Hungary, Lithuania, and Sweden, to name but a few.
Very, very popular, kind of a family orientated drink,
often of the lower classes.
And it was literally old, stale bread
would be soaked, rye bread.
And once it was soaked and kind of macerated
for 24 hours or so,
then they slightly ferment it
and you get this wonderful drink.
It has a slight fizz to it.
- Yeah. - Slight alcohol content,
but tiny, like one, one and a half percent.
And it's something that everyone can enjoy.
Would you like to pair it with some food?
- Oh yeah.
- Oh fantastic.
(screen wipe whooshes) (upbeat indie music)
- Well, damn!
- A sausage board.
- [Mike] It is a board of saus.
- [Ben] This is essentially a whole bunch of things
that we could pick up from a Polish deli.
- Oh. - So there's all sorts
of Polish sausage, some sort of roll moppy things
some nice gherkins, some kabanos,
some rye bread, some Ryvita.
Yeah, snack away, on the kind of excellent Polish sausage
that has that snap and smokiness to it, it's wonderful.
So very deliberately we have picked you a selection
of Polish items, that as a kind of platter and spread
that might be served with our Kvass.
The kvass itself can also be used in cooking.
So it can be used as the base to soups or stews.
In the same way we might do a beef and ale pie,
they would sometimes use the kvass in cooking as well,
but more often than not it's just enjoyed on its own,
kids and adults alike.
- This is amazing.
- So like any kind of beer this could be made from a wort
of just like rye flour and malt and you'd boil it up
and release all the sugar yourself,
or it's a fantastic way to upcycle leftover bread.
So for example, rye bread, you soak it,
get all of the goodness out
and then you can add in more yeast,
some more sugar if it's required,
and it'll ferment to a low alcohol option.
- I'm really surprised that something that is so popular
in so many countries that close to the UK,
I've never heard of.
- Really, really cool.
Really fascinating.
It's fantastic.
- Not something I've seen in UK retailers,
but again, easy to get hold of online.
Is this the best thing since sliced bread?
- Oh. - Or not rye-ly your thing?
(Mike laughs) - Oh, lost it, lost it.
I had such high hopes. - That's terrible.
If you're asking me if I like it. Yes.
Not sure I would buy some to get it in,
in all honesty,
but if I saw it when I was out and about,
I would a hundred percent get it.
- If I saw it, I'd buy one
and whoever I was with, I'd say, taste this.
- Taste this, yeah.
- Polish sausage in one hand, Kvass in the other
- Good day.
- Fair to say, out of those four.
I have had my mind blow.
- Yeah.
Oh yeah, definitely, well done.
- Well done - You blew our minds.
- Some really interesting things.
- Well there's our thoughts, but do you agree?
Which one of those interested you the most?
Comment down below
and share your opinions with everyone else.
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(production card beeps)
Does it, does it hurt to get stung?
- Yeah, it does.
- How, who gets stung multiple times by jellyfish?
What the hell are you doing?
- Just playing around in the sea.
- Do you put it on your holiday itinerary?
Where'd you get stung?
- I got stung on my ankle.
- Yeah?
- I got stung on my waist
and I got stung on the foot.
(Mike laughs)
'cause I trod on one. (crew laughing)